An early audio recording of a TV drama, starring future Doctor Who companion Jacqueline Hill, has been unearthed by the film's director.

The play Requiem for a Heavyweight, is notable for also featuring the first lead performance by the future James Bond, Sean Connery as well as an early performance by Michael Caine.

The play was broadcast on 31 March 1957, performed live on BBC Television as part of the Sunday-Night Theatre series. It was written for US television in 1956 by The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling where it starred Jack Palance in the lead role.

Jacqueline Hill played Grace Carney in the UK version, which was directed by Alvin Rakoff, who would marry Hill the following year. Rakoff said it was his future wife who convinced him to cast Connery in the Palance role, when it was clear the actor wouldn't travel to the UK for the British version of the play.

He told BBC News: The play was thought to have been lost until Rakoff remembered a recording he had asked the sound booth to make during transmission: After a search Rakoff recently found the recording in the attic of his London home.

Jacqueline Hill and Alvin Rakoff were married for 36 years, until her death in 1993. Rakoff, now in his 80's, is still working and has just written the conspiracy thriller The Seven Einsteins.

FOX Germany have announced their intention to broadcast the next series of Doctor Who at the same time as or as near as possible to its transmission in the United Kingdom - making it the first station in the world to present a series alongside its traditional "home"!

The episodes, which will be available to watch in both a German-dubbed version or the original English soundtrack, will be aired as close to the actual transmission on BBC One as is practical - the UK schedules can vary from week to week depending upon other programming and events, whereas German schedules are less 'fluid' - as the press release cites, should the series air at 8:00pm in the UK then it would air at 9:00pm in Germany.

Marco de Ruiter, Managing Director for FOX, said:

The actual premiere date and time in August has yet to be confirmed.


Back in November, the channel narrowly missed being part of the global simulcast of The Day of the Doctor, broadcasting the episode some ten minutes later at 9:00pm local time. Similarly, The Time of the Doctor was broadcast about an hour later in Germany, though FOX were the first to show the festive episode after the UK.

Doctor Who is a daily fixture on FOX, with this week seeing the run reach Series 4.

The "alternative" 50th Anniversary special for Doctor Who, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, is to receive an official release on DVD, its co-star Colin Baker revealed at the DWAS convention Myth Makers this afternoon. The actor reported that it would appear on an as-yet unscheduled special set featuring former Doctor Matt Smith.

No other details of what the overall set will comprise are available at present, though it is likely to be released both on DVD and Blu-ray format later this year.


The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot tells the tale of the attempts of 'classic' Doctors Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison (who also wrote and directed the piece) to appear in the 50th Anniversary adventure, and their various encounters and mishaps along the way!

The drama detailing the creation of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time, has been nominated for three prestigious Critics’ Choice Television Awards.

The drama itself is nominated in the Best Movie category, where it faces competition from an episode of Sherlock as well as another BBC biopic, Burton and Taylor.

David Bradley, who played William Hartnell in the drama, is nominated for Best Actor in a Movie of Mini Series, while Jessica Raine, who played Doctor Who's first producer Verity Lambert, is nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Mini Series.

The Critics’ Choice Television Awards honour programs and performances that aired between June 1, 2013 and May 31, and are voted for by US journalists who write about TV.

The Awards will be presented at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday, June 19, 2014 in a ceremony hosted by actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer.

The actress Barbara Murray has died at the age of 84.

Barbara Murray appeared in Doctor Who in 1982, playing Lady Cranleigh in the story Black Orchid, alongside fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

Born in London in 1929, Murray made her stage debut in 1949 working in regional rep at the Newcastle Playhouse. Later that year she appeared in her first film, Badger’s Green before appearing as Shirley Pemberton in the classic Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico.

Her success in the movies led to a string of roles on the small screen, where she became a familiar face, with a career spanning five decades. Some of her more memorable TV roles include parts in The Pallisers, His and Hers, Never a Cross Word, The Power Game and The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling.

West End appearances included the thriller Wait Until Dark , the comedy Flip Side and the play An Ideal Husband. She also appeared with Peter O’Toole in Pygmalion and opposite John Mills in Little White Lies. On Broadway she appeared briefly at the Biltmore Theatre in Leslie Weiner’s comedy about a family-run lingerie business, In the Counting House.

Barbara Murray retired to Spain where, earlier this year, she fell and broke her hip. She died in hospital May 20, aged 84.

She was twice married and divorced, and is survived by three daughters from her first marriage to the actor John Justin.

The BBC have reported that the Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Louisa Rose Allen, better known as Foxes, will feature in the new series of Doctor Who:

Speaking about her casting, she said:

Lead writer Steven Moffat said:

The singer took time off from her UK tour for her album Glorious to undertake filming yesterday; she will also be performing a track for the series.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine reveals the most popular stories of the first five decades of the series, as voted for by readers of the magazine.

Which classic twentieth-century story hits the Top Five for the first time ever?
Which adventure shoots up the list to become the top story of the Second Doctor’s era?
Which two recurring monsters see their every appearance land inside the Top 75?
Which two Doctors find an incredible 50% of their stories inside the top third of the poll?
Which adventure will be voted the greatest Doctor Who story of all time?

The answers to these questions are revealed as the magazine celebrates the Top 10 stories of each decade, from the 1960s to the 2010s – and gives the ultimate chart placing of each and every one of the Doctor’s 241 adventures to date.

Also in this issue:

• Showrunner Steven Moffat writes his exclusive column for the magazine.
• The thrilling conclusion to the final Eleventh Doctor comic strip, The Blood of Azrael.
• The Time Team watch 2008's The Doctor’s Daughter.
• Jacqueline Rayner reveals how Doctor Who can cause family tension in Relative Dimensions.
• The Watcher looks back at Doctor Who polls of the past in Wotcha.
• Previews of all the latest merchandise.
• Reviews of the latest CDs, and books.
• Prize-winning competitions and the DWM crossword,

The Magazine, which comes with 16 extra pages and a souvenir gatefold cover, is on sale from Thursday 29 May.

Retro TV, the American network that airs classic television shows, has signed a deal with BBC Worldwide to show classic episodes of Doctor Who across the United States.

The deal will see episodes from the first thirty years of the series screened on the channel, which currently airs such classics as The Lucy Show, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Highway to Heaven, Naked City and I Spy.

The channel has a licence to show all the classic episodes that are currently available from BBC Worldwide, just under 500 in all, covering the adventures of the first seven Doctors. 695 episodes were originally made, with 97 still missing from the BBC archives after being destroyed in the 1970's.

The deal was welcomed by Matthew Golden Vice President of Production at Luken Communications. Classic Doctor Who episodes have been seen in the states on Public Television since the 1970's, and selected stories were shown on BBC America to celebrate the series 50th Anniversary.

Doctor Who will makes its debut on Retro TV this summer.

BBC One has won the Eurovision Connect award for Best Promotion For A Fictional Programme for its work promoting Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary episode.

The award was announced at the Eurovision Connect Conference in Vienna, Austria. The conference is organised by the European Broadcasting Union and brings together about 140 professionals from public service broadcasters throughout Europe.

The Day of the Doctor was broadcast simultaneously around the world in 94 countries. It achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama.

BBC One also won the Best Promotion For An Entertainment Programme/Event for The Voice.

The Hillywood Show, the internet site renowned for producing parodies of big budget Hollywood movies, has turned its attention to Doctor Who. The video, created by sisters Hilly and Hannah Hindi, takes a look at life with the Tenth Doctor.